On Tuesday in the Reichstag the German Imperial Chancellor met
demands from both the Right and the Left that the Govern- ment should disclose their aims in the war by refusing to say any- thing. The Junkers complain that he is controlled by the Socialists ; the Socialists complain that he is under the thumb of the Junkers. Knowing that he could not please anybody, he took refuge in silence—or, rather, in a grandiose oration of platitude and irrelevant sentiment which was tho equivalent of silence. But this silence, it should be carefully noted, was in effect a repetition of the former German " offer." On December 12th, 1916, the Central Powers offered to end the war if the Allies would enter a Peace Conference without any preliminary hint of the conditions to bo proposed. That offer still holds good, and does not seem less preposterous and. dishonest through the lapse of time. The German Staff know that soldiers who have enjoyed an armistice for negotiations cannot resume fighting in quite the same spirit. They therefore hoped to induce the Allies to call off their Armies at the time when the Allied strength was growing and the German strength diminishing.
